The execution of 1993-Mumbai bomb blasts convict Yakub Memon cost Maharashtra government about Rs 50 lakh. This includes fees paid to the senior counsels hired by the government to fight the case in the Supreme Court, expenditure for hiring a chartered 6-seater plane to carry Memon’s body to Mumbai from Nagpur where he was executed and the funds spent on upgrading infrastructure at Nagpur prison for the execution.

Memon, the only convict sentenced to death in the case, was hanged at the Nagpur prison on July 30.

Sources in the home department said that the total expenses incurred by the government reached about Rs 50 lakh. The state home department recently cleared two bills for the charges of senior counsel appeared in the apex court and the charges towards a private plane charter.

“We recently cleared the bill of Rs 22 lakh towards fees of the senior counsels who appeared on four occasions including the one held at midnight, hours ahead of the execution. Attorney general of India was representing state government in the Yakub Memon case,” said an official from the department who did not wish to be named.

The file related to the execution of Yakub has been given a special status invoking provisions of the Right to Information Act and Official Secrets Act, thus making it inaccessible under the RTI.

Prior to the hanging, the state government had made special allotment of Rs 22.99 lakh to upgrade the infrastructural facilities at the Nagpur prison. The amount was spent to put up an overhead grill to cover the open space in hanging yard cell and strengthening of the structures in the yard.